A scenic byway is a specially designated road that travels through an area of natural or cultural beauty. You can drive on through your life as fast as you can, more focused on the destination than the journey. Or you can choose to be present and revel in the journey that is life. I choose the latter. Eyes wide open and marveling at the beauty that is everywhere all the time - this is My Scenic Byway.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

the Rosewood Thieves

I don't write much about music here. This is not a music blog. But this blog is about travel, and what is travel without a soundtrack? Music is a part of the byway - always. Every adventure, every road trip needs a soundtrack. So, occasionally I do write about some music stuff.

This morning I just bought tickets to see Dr. Dog all the way out in October (!). I wouldn't normally buy tickets for a show so far in advance because I typically have no idea what I am going to be doing 3 months from now. I travel a lot for work and things come up. But the band is playing at Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown (my backyard in less than one week!) so how can I miss that? I like small shows - that is about all I can handle at this point in my life. I want an intimate music experience, not to be a speck in a giant crowded stadium where I have to see the band with binoculars. P&H is a fabulous venue and I can't believe a band like Dr. Dog is playing such a small venue. Absolutely I am going.

However this blog entry is not about Dr. Dog. It is about the Rosewood Thieves. Listening to Dr. Dog reminded me of them.

I stumbled upon this band in 2008 at a small bar on H Street, in Washington, DC. I think it was at the Red and the Black. I can't remember. But we were there to see a friend who was in a local band. The friend's band were ok, really just goofing around. Unbelievably the band that opened for them was The Rosewood Thieves. I say unbelievably because unlike this friend's band, this was a serious for real touring band.

Standing around waiting for our friends to perform, I watched the Rosewood Thieves show and was blown away. This was a tiny room. There weren't even 50 or 100 people in the room. I was right there feet from the band. It was one of those rare magical music moments in life - when you just stumble upon a band and see this intimate performance and it sticks with you forever. Its a great music on the Byway memorable moment.

I loved them. They were selling their CDs and I bought all three of them. To this day they are some of my favorite CDs (and I have 34 days worth of music on my computer music library). I love every single song they've done - all 22 songs.

This New York based folk rock band was formed in 2004 and was fairly active until 2009. Lead singer and guitarist Erick Jordan started the band. You may have heard them and not known it as a few of their songs appeared on tv shows. Their song Los Angeles was on Entourage and Grey's Anatomy.

I've checked periodically to see if they had any new releases. No. Tours? No. This morning I decided to do a little research and I couldn't find anything about them! Then sadly, I found this article. http://www.7dvt.com/2011breakdown. Well now I know. The band broke down and broke up.

The lead singer seems to be getting his career together again, with a new group of musicians forming the Rosewood Thieves. That is good. I like his voice (a bit of Bob Dylan in there?) and I hope the new band can carry on the beauty that was started under the original band. But its all made me a little sad because damn I love this band. Yes, there is a new band, but will it be the same? I sure hope so.

Here's some Rosewood Thieves music for you...do yourself a favor and give all the songs here a listen - they are all different and quite good. Good road trip music for your Scenic Byway adventures. xo

Mad Man Blues

Los Angeles

Untitled #1

Not a great quality video, and not a great version (recorded one is fantastic) but probably my favorite song from the band.

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